Susan Molford

Records with the Visitations of Devon show Susan was born in 1551, in the Parish of Bovey Tracey, County of Devonshire (now Devon), not far from South Molton (also in the County of Devonshire), but not in South Molton itself which was her husband's ancestral home, founded by his great-great-great-grandparents Roger Molford (Mulford) I and Elizabeth Hacche (Heiress of Hacche in South Molton), parents of Thomas Molford I who moved to the estate of Agnes Blackmore his wife at Garliford, Parish of Bishops Nympton, Devonshire, about three miles from South Molton, where the families of their son and grandson William (not Wilton) Molford I and William (not Wilton) Molford II remained until William II's son Roger Molford II joined the estate of Amy Capnar ("Copener') his wife, Heiress of Cadbury, in the Parish of Chulmleigh, also near South Molton.

The will of Susan(na) Molford (of Cadbury, Parish of Chulmleigh, Devonshire), Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills (PCC), shows she died sometime in or before 1659, not 1639, likely living beyond 100 years. The record reveals she was of extraordinary age and remained unmarried after the death --in 1599-- of Thomas Molford II her husband.

According to the Visitations and records therewith, Susan Southcott Molford was indeed the daughter of Susan Kirkham, for whom she was named, 2nd wife of Thomas Southcott. She was not the daughter of Thomas Southcott's first wife, Grace, as often purported.

Susan Southcott Molford was the grandmother --not mother-- of William Mulford and Judge John Mulford of Massachusetts and East Hampton, New York, and their brother Thomas Mulford (Munford) of Massachusetts and Virginia, all of whom were born much too late (from about 1610-1620) to have been her sons, since she was born in 1551 and Thomas Molford her husband died in 1599. The three Mulford brothers were, instead, sons of Sarah of Maidstone and Thomas Southcott Mulford (Munford) of Virginia and Boston, Massachusetts, daughter-in-law and son of Thomas and Susan Southcott Molford.

Sarah of Maidstone (whose own surname likely was not Southcott, if she even had a surname) was not, as often supposed, the same person as Susan Southcott Molford --her mother-in-law. The names Sarah and Susan do look much alike, especially in old handwritten accounts, and so they were confused, as were their husbands, having the same name, being father and son and not the same man as often supposed.

Thomas Molford III (Thomas Southcott Mulford), born sometime after 1571, was the sole surviving adult son of Thomas and Susan Southcott Molford of Cadbury who, according to Visitation records, were married in Bovey Tracey on December 3, 1571. Though apparently disinherited (probably for joining the Puritan rebellion along with his sons), there is no actual record of his death as there is for his brothers, John and William (aka "Gilbert"). It is merely purported, in the Visitations, that he too died without offspring, even though it is obvious he escaped to America, along with three of his sons (William, John, and Thomas), named after their father and uncles as were the sons of Thomas and Susan Molford of Cadbury (Thomas, John, and "Gilbert" --a kind of nickname used interchangeably with William in those days, as seen in various records of the time), likewise named after their father and uncles (Thomas, John, and William, sons of Roger and Amy Molford of Cadbury).

Educated historians in fact do NOT find the Visitations, or records based on them, to be fully trustworthy because, like modern census records, the Visitations relied frequently on mere hearsay, unless supported by other records. Assumptions, in recent years, by amateur internet genealogists, that the Visitations were entirely reliable have led some to conclude falsely that the Mulfords of East Hampton could not have descended, as all branches of this family have always maintained, from the Molfords of Devonshire, when in fact from the earliest times, as inscribed repeatedly on their own gravestones in the Hamptons, the Mulfords of East Hampton actually spelled their name MOLFORD --just like the Mulfords/Molfords of Devonshire, and we have the photographic evidence to prove this.

Mulford was an extremely rare surname in those days, remaining rare even today, and the Molford variation, used consistently only by the Mulfords/Molfords of East Hampton and Devonshire, was much rarer still. To insist that no relationship existed between them is, therefore, preposterous. Just like the Mulfords of East Hampton, and just like the Mulfords of Shropshire, the Molfords/Mulfords of Devonshire were largely a family of municipal lawyers (burgesses, judges, etc).

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Feb 21 2018, 5:47:15 UTC